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If you're unsure whether you should purchase a MacBook Pro with the M1 Pro chip or if an M1 machine will best suit your needs, our latest YouTube video is for you. We've compared the 14-inch base MacBook Pro with M1 Pro chip to the 13-inch base MacBook Pro with M1 chip to give our readers an idea of how they measure up to one another.



The M1 MacBook Pro is priced starting at $1,299, and it comes with an M1 chip that features an 8-core CPU and an 8-core GPU, along with 8GB memory and a 256GB SSD.

The base 14-inch M1 Pro MacBook Pro is priced starting at $1,999 and has an 8-core CPU, a 14-core GPU, 16GB memory, and a 512GB SSD. Upgraded models of the M1 Pro come with a 10-core CPU and 16-core GPU, but we're comparing the two base models.

Apple's 14-inch M1 Pro MacBook Pro is $700 more expensive than the M1 model, but as you'll see in our video, it's much more capable. It has a brighter, crisper display that makes a noticeable difference and additional ports. There's one more USB-C/Thunderbolt port, a MagSafe charging port, an HDMI port, and an SD card reader. Speakers probably aren't a major selling point for most people, but the sound is much improved, and there's also a somewhat better webcam at 1080p vs. 720p.

There are clear performance differences with the M1 and M1 Pro when it comes to Geekbench scores. The M1 MacBook Pro earned a single-core score of 1705 and a multi-core score of 7385, along with an OpenCL score of 18480. In comparison, the 14-inch MacBook Pro earned a single-core score of 1763, a multi-core score of 9823, and an OpenCL score of 30569, which is a decent improvement in multi-core and graphics performance.

This does translate to real-world usage as well. Rendering a 4K timeline in Final Cut Pro took the M1 Pro MacBook Pro about 2 minutes and 55 seconds, but the M1 MacBook Pro took 3 minutes and 40 seconds, which is a notable difference. The M1 Pro MacBook Pro was able to handle 8K footage with no problem, but the M1 MacBook Pro struggled.

So is the 14-inch MacBook Pro worth the premium? Sure, if you need the kind of power that it delivers. If you're just going to be reading emails, browsing the web, and doing other lightweight tasks, the M1 chip is more than sufficient. As a note, though, if you're considering an M1 MacBook, it's probably best to go with the MacBook Air, a thinner and lighter machine that is nearly as powerful and $300 less expensive than the M1 MacBook Pro, saving you even more money.

If you need more power for pro-level tasks like video editing, sound editing, photography, and similar purposes, shelling out an extra $700 may be well worth it given the benefits of the M1 Pro, the extra 8GB memory you get with the base machine, and the additional storage space compared to base M1 options.

Make sure to watch our video for the full comparison, and let us know in the comments if you think the M1 Pro MacBook Pros are worth the additional money over the M1 machines.

Note: Our YouTube video and article have been republished after we addressed an error with the Geekbench scores.

Article Link: Video Comparison: M1 MacBook Pro vs. M1 Pro MacBook Pro
 
Last edited:

fel10

macrumors 68020
Feb 2, 2010
2,295
3,550
Woodstock, GA USA
Pro pro pro pro pro

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Markgnyc2

macrumors 6502
Nov 17, 2013
389
726
Of course the M1 Pro is more powerful. But the question you need to ask yourself is do you need all that power? Because if you need it, and you want to pay for it, its there. If you don't edit video professionally, then you don't need it. An M1 Air or Pro (2020) will be just fine. As a matter of fact until the new Macs were released, the Professionals were editing video on the M1 Macs and all we heard for the last year was how powerful they were.
 

TheSynchronizer

macrumors 6502
Dec 2, 2014
443
729
There are clear performance differences with the M1 and M1 Pro when it comes to Geekbench scores. The M1 MacBook Pro earned a single-core score of 1051 and a multi-core score of 4236, along with a Metal score of 15222. In comparison, the 14-inch MacBook Pro earned a single-core score of 1763, a multi-core score of 9823, and a Metal score of 30569, so we're looking at somewhere around double the performance.
This doesn’t sound right. The M1 actually gets 7385 multicore score on average, and 1705 single core.

This entire article sounds like you were comparing the 2020 intel MBP to the m1 pro instead, as those scores align directly with the scores of that model, which is hilarious.

Please fix?
 

KPOM

macrumors P6
Oct 23, 2010
18,307
8,319
The single core and multi-core scores on the M1 MacBook Pro look way too low. The single-core should be about the same as the M1 Pro, and the multi-core should be around 7700.
 

KPOM

macrumors P6
Oct 23, 2010
18,307
8,319
I just wish they'd stick an M1 in a MacBook 12. Both of those are too big and heavy
We’ll see what happens next year with the M2 MacBook (non-Pro). Maybe they will use the efficiency gains to make it smaller.
 
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